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In the book-author world, there’s been no bigger shake-up to the establishment than the arrival of the Kindle self-publishing platform (and other self-publishing platforms on iBooks, Nook, and others).

With the arrival of turnkey self-publishing in the form of Amazon’s Kindle platform that enables an author to instantly start selling their books on the world’s biggest book marketplace, authors big and small have realized that they no longer need big publishing in order to get their works out into the world and start making money.

Of course, while most authors don’t make a whole lot of money, those that do usually have their own followings. Whether they are an established writer who has made a name through traditional publishing or someone who happens to have a following as a result of their profession or through some other claim to fame, an author can monetize pretty quickly by uploading and hitting publish.

But there’s a big downside to Kindle publishing in the form of a 30% fee that Amazon takes off the top. Sure, paying only 30% is a heck of a lot better than the traditional splits an author would get through big publishing, but 30% is still a heavy tax, particularly if the author is bringing much of his or her own sales by promoting to their own network.

So what can they do? Well, in today’s democratized publishing world, there are an increasing number of payment and delivery platforms that allow an author to sell their own books while side-stepping the Kindle tax, while also allowing them to truly own the customer (remember: Amazon always owns the customer, especially since authors never know who is buying their books).

Here are four ways to sell your e-book and avoid the Amazon tax:

Gumroad

Gumroad is a simple payment and digital delivery system that allows authors (and anyone with a digital product) to integrate e-book sales directly into their website. Designer Nathan Barry decided to side-step Amazon because he didn’t want to pay the Amazon tax (which would have been higher than 30% because his books start at $39) and integrated Gumroad. The result? Less than a year later he’s made nearly $200 thousand. And Gumroad isn’t the only upload & sell tool around. Others such as Sellfy, DigitalDeliveryApp and e-Junkie have also proven hugely popular.

E-commerce website platforms

While most people think of Shopify and BigCommerce as ways to sell physical goods, an increasing number of entrepreneur-minded authors are increasingly using these platforms as a way to sell digital goods. Making it easier is the ability to use digital-delivery app plugins like FetchApp to enable instant delivery of e-books to the customer.

WordPress

While WordPress doesn’t have its own built-in commerce functionality, a number of WordPress-centric plugins have been developed to enable the sale and delivery of digital goods. Perhaps the most well known is WooCommerce, which enables an author to set up a store, take payments and deliver their e-book in turnkey fashion.

When Squarespace launched Squarespace 6 last year, one of the first upgrades they made was enabling commerce, with easy turnkey transaction and digital delivery functionality built directly into the web publishing platform. According to Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena, commerce functionality was their most requested feature of all time.

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Amazon as a marketplace is a great way for authors to find new readers, however if you do already have a loyal social media or blog following, then offering sales directly can be a great way for writers to reduce their fees. It’s also a good opportunity to give the transaction a more personal touch – and you don’t have to worry about your potential buyer getting distracted or lost in the jungle and not coming back to your site. I work for Selz.com – another really good tool for selling on your blog or social media pages.

Branding is also often overlooked when dealing with third party marketplaces for sales, and let’s face it, Amazon isn’t exactly the prettiest girl in the pageant. Functional yes, excitement inducing? Not really. By keeping sales on your own site or blog you get to really tailor and push your message in a way that allows you to connect with your audience – and that’s what going to count in the long run.

I agree with Michale and Mel. For new authors the marketplaces like Amazons and Kobo are essential as they have lots of potential new buyers. As you grow the number of people that like your ebooks there is a tipping point when you want to sell more ebooks to previous readers and get them to recommend you to others. So you don’t need the established market places as much then and want to sell more directly. I think I read some stats somewhere that people having read one author’s book are more likely to buy another. So this supports established self publishing authors focusing more self selling direct from your own blog or website using the new tools like Gumroad or www.Selz.com if anyone is interested this is another good blog post about the royalties charged http://andrewhy.de/amazons-markup-of-digital-delivery-to-indie-authors-is-129000/

I’m glad to see Gumroad getting some attention here Michael. I’ve long admired them and have had success selling books through them. It’s dead-easy and I appreciate their seamless integration with Twitter and Facebook networks. Another worth mentioning is Leanpub, which specializes in iterative and serial publishing, and has a sliding scale pricing system, too.

I always encourage authors to make their ebooks available for direct sale through their blogs and websites. Why not? Yes, Amazon has huge market share but it hardly services every country in the world. I use Digital Delivery App, which you mentioned, and am happy with it so far. I’ve had sales at my website from many places around the world, even Qatar and India.

I’m the author of 8 fantasy novels and I’ve been selling them at my Brave Luck Books web store since 2006. Back then I was NOT ALLOWED to place my novels at any viable ebook stores. Thankfully after launching the Kindle, Amazon stopped hating on self publishers and I can sell ebooks there too. This turnaround also encouraged other companies like Apple and Barnes & Noble to accept self published works, many of which generate thousands in revenue every month by the way.

Even though I’m now allowed to be a part of mainstream marketplaces, I’ll never forget being excluded, so my personal web store remains very important to me. And every sale I get there means cash in my pocket now. I only have to pay credit card fees and I don’t have to wait 60 days for payment. A bird in hand is better than 3 in a bush. My mailing list definitely drives sales to my website when I release a new novel. Many of my readers like the chance to do business with me personally.

Thanks for sharing. I agree as well that for new authors without a following Amazon is a great way to get started. But, regardless of which site authors use remember that you always want to build a list and you can’t do that directly with any third part site that I know of. So you have to make sure that you direct people to get on your list from your ebook.

I am a new author and I have been working on a slightly fictionalized saga. I am looking for a place to market it. I have my Query letter written and want a paying publisher to pick it up. If not I need to know how I go about making my own web site. Help!!!

I have to take issue with a few of the other commenters who think you need an established audience to successfully market your book yourself.

I published a book last year through Leanpub, a one-stop-shop site that helps you create your book and sell it on their store.

When I published my book, I had a few hundred Twitter followers and no mailing list or blog traffic to speak of. Since then I’ve grown my mailing list to almost 5,000 and my book’s Twitter account to almost 10,000, and I’ve earned more than $16,000 in the process.

If I’d gone with Amazon, I’d have earned a maximum of $7,000 on the same number of sales–and I’d have no way to contact my audience directly.

It definitely takes some legwork and the willingness to learn, but now I have a decent-sized audience that I can sell other related books to.

As a reader, I love Amazon, but I’d never sell there as an author.

I recently posted a write-up of my experience as a self-published author on my blog at http://joshuaearl.com/selfpublishing/lessons-learned-from-a-year-as-a-self-published-author/.